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Of course, riders worry about the weather before they go into battle but at the Austrian Grand Prix in the eighties, it was not rain or high winds that caused furrowed brows before the visors dropped. Snow and really thick snow was the problem.

The MotoGP™ riders looked up at the darkening sky as clouds amassed over the grid on Sunday – would the weather play yet another vital part on the 21-lap proceedings round the 5.403 km circuit that snaked its way through forests on its undulating journey up and down the hillside overlooking the city of Brno. This time those black clouds did not drop their contents and the asphalt remained dry throughout.

Next Sunday the riders will once again cast a wary eye over those magnificent mountains that surround the Red Bull Ring as they line up for the Austrian Grand Prix. Just ask anybody who was there in the nineties if it can rain, I promise you it can and very hard but snow in August, surely not a chance.

The Salzburgring was a magnificent venue but I didn’t have to race a fearsome 500cc two-stroke round the 4.240 km frighteningly fast undulating track that staged the Austrian Grand Prix 22 times. Magnificent scenery in the foothills above the city of Salzburg. A mountain stream ran through the tunnel that led you into the paddock and you’d walk alongside another stream that followed the wooded path to the start and finish line and the communications hut that was staffed with an iron fist by the apply named Fax Family who were very easy to upset, which we often did. We stayed in a great hotel in the lakeside village of Fuschl Am See, which is now the home of Red Bull. They not only understood why you needed to be on the phone at reception for a couple of hours to relay the race story back to England but would keep a supply of apple strudel and beer to keep you going on a yet another long Sunday night. Marlboro would stage a magnificent dinner usually hosted by Giacomo Agostini at the superb hotel half way up the mountain overlooking Salzburg before practice got underway on Thursday night.

So, a great place to work and spectate but it was the timing of the race which often was the first Grand Prix of the season that spoilt our fun. The Venezuelan Grand Prix had already been cancelled in 1980 because of financial problems and so Austria was due to start the new season on April 27th. Spring it may have been but some unseasonable thick snow – even for this part of the world – not only prevented riders actually tracing the outline of the circuit in the blizzards but blocked any chance of the trucks and motorhomes getting into the paddock. The first race of the season moved onto Misano in Italy two weeks later where Kenny Roberts was a comfortable winner. You would have thought they had learned their lesson but a year later on the same weekend practice had to be delayed for the opening Grand Prix of the season. You guessed it, because of the snow. Although the race won by Randy Mamola did take place.

Never say never but with Europe frying in the summer sunshine, the last thing on the riders mind lining up for the Austrian Grand Prix as Ducati chase a hatrick of victories will be snow.

• Last year Marc Marquez won at Brno by a margin of 12.438 seconds from team-mate Dani Pedrosa. This is the largest margin of victory by Marquez in the MotoGP class.

• At the Czech Grand Prix Marc Marquez is scheduled to make his 100^th Grand Prix start in the MotoGP class. At the age of just 25 years and 169 days Marquez is the second youngest ever rider to reach the milestone of 100 starts in the premier-class. The only rider to reach this milestone at a younger age is John Hopkins who was 24 years 348 days old when he made his 100^th premier-class start at the Chinese GP in 2008.

• Pol Espargaro’s ninth place finish last year at Brno was the first top ten finish in the MotoGP class for KTM.

• The two riders with most grand prix victories at the current Brno circuit, each with seven wins, are Max Biaggi (4 x 250cc, 2 x 500cc, 1 x MotoGP) and Valentino Rossi (1x 125cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 500cc, 4 x MotoGP).

• Valentino Rossi is the only rider to win the MotoGP race at Brno in successive years – in 2008 and 2009.

• The best result for a Czech rider in the MotoGP class at Brno is 9^th for Karel Abraham in 2012 riding a Ducati.

• When Valentino Rossi lines up on the grid at Brno it will be the 23^rd successive year that he will have started in a grand prix race at Brno, and will be just the second circuit, along with Jerez, he will have raced in every year of his grand prix career. The other three circuits that have appeared on the grand prix schedule every year whilst Rossi has been racing (Mugello, Catalunya and Assen) were all circuits he did not start following his accident in practice for the Italian Grand Prix in 2010.

• Cal Crutchlow’s win at Brno in 2016 was the first victory in the premier-class by a British rider for thirty-five years since Barry Sheene riding a Yamaha in the 500cc Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp on 16^th August 1981.

• This year’s Czech Grand Prix will be the 49^th to be held at Brno.

• The only venue that has hosted more grand prix events than Brno is Assen in The Netherlands, which has hosted the Dutch TT in each of the 70 years of the motorcycling world championship.

• The first Czechoslovakian Grand Prix was held at Brno in 1965. The 500cc race, held over thirteen laps of the original 13.94 km long road circuit, was won by Mike Hailwood (MV Agusta) in a time of 1hr 11 min 23.2 sec.

• The circuit was shortened to 10.92 km in 1975 in an effort to improve safety.

• The last premier-class race held on the road circuit at Brno was in 1977 and was won by Johnny Cecotto riding a Yamaha. The circuit was subsequently considered too dangerous for the large capacity machines.

• The smaller capacity machines continued to compete in grand prix races on the Brno road circuit until 1982 before it was removed from the grand prix calendar for safety reasons.

• The current circuit was first used for grand prix racing in 1987 and hosted the Czechoslovakian GP through until 1991. Brno did not appear on the calendar for 1992, but the event was revived in 1993 as the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic and has taken place every year since.

• This will be the 31^st time that the current circuit has hosted a grand prix event, during which time the circuit has remained virtually unchanged; minor modifications were made to the circuit in 1996 which extended the length from 5.394 km to the current 5.403 km.

• Since the introduction of the four-stroke MotoGP class in 2002 Honda have been the most successful manufacturer with eight victories, including the last two years with Cal Crutchlow in 2016 and Marc Marquez last year.

• Yamaha have taken six MotoGP victories at Brno, but only one in the last seven years, which was with Jorge Lorenzo in 2015.

• Ducati have twice won the MotoGP race at Brno, with Loris Capirossi in 2006 and Casey Stoner in 2007. The last podium for a Ducati rider at Brno was when Stoner finished third in 2010.

• The last win for Suzuki at Brno was in the 500cc class in 1989 with Kevin Schwantz. Loris Capirossi was the last rider to finish on the podium at Brno riding a Suzuki – 3^rd in 2008.

• There has only been one podium finish by a Czech rider at the current Brno circuit across all classes – Lukas Pesek’s third place in the 125cc race in 2007 riding a Derbi.

• The eight Moto2 races that have taken place at Brno have been won by eight different riders: 2010 – Toni Elias, 2011 – Andrea Iannone, 2012 – Marc Marquez, 2013 – Mika Kallio, 2014 – Tito Rabat, 2015 – Johann Zarco, 2016 – Jonas Folger, 2017 – Tom Luthi. None of these riders are now competing in the Moto2 class.

• Six different riders have won the six Moto3 races that have taken place at Brno: 2012 -Jonas Folger, 2013 – Luis Salom, 2014 – Alexis Masbou, 2015 – Niccolo Antonelli, 2016 – John McPhee, 2017 – Joan Mir.

The two weeks of pain, anguish and that so familiar feeling of disappointment and ultimate let down is about to start once again. Every four years we patriotic English fans in the MotoGP paddock community prepare for the worst. We start with so much hope and optimism which is slowly drained from every bone in your body before the final humiliation much to the delight of the other nationalities – Yes the Football World Cup in Russia is about to start.

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve stumbled out of the IRTA paddock office late at night after witnessing yet another England defeat. The misery shared by many others amid the empty beer cans and pizza boxes. An evening which would have started with so much excitement and laughter ended with more than a choice few words and then total silence as we walked through the dark deserted MotoGP paddock.

This is not a new experience. Even I was not in the MotoGP paddock when England won the World Cup in 1966 but I was there 24 years later when they came very close although my choice of venue and fellow television viewers was not perfect. A small hotel deep in the Ardennes forest on the border of Belgium and Germany would not have been my preferred venue for a World Cup semi-final clash in Italy between England and Germany. I never realised that the Spa Francorchamps circuit, which was hosting the Belgium Grand Prix that weekend, was so close to the German border. I was the lone English voice amongst the German fans still smarting from that final defeat 24 long years earlier. It was a truly epic encounter that went to a penalty shoot- out. Enough said, because we all know how England always fares in dreaded penalty shoot outs and especially against Germany.

I remember the Qualifying press conference for the 2006 British Grand Prix at Donington Park. The World Cup game between England and Portugal in Germany was taking place at the same time. Distracted from announcing the Tissot watch winners would be a fair assessment of my state of mind at the time. While the photographs of the pole setters was being conducted I received a note from the Italian journalists telling me with great delight that England’s star player Wayne Rooney had been sent off. I rushed to the IRTA office when conference had finished without too many questions from the floor being offered to the journalists. I arrived in time for the penalty shoot–out and so no need to say anymore.

I’ve also jealously watched a nation celebrate success in a major football tournament. The night of the 1988 Dutch TT in Assen Holland beat Russia in the final of the European Championship in Germany and how they celebrated. I was in Amsterdam which went even crazier than normal while Schiphol airport the next morning was a sea of orange and tulips to welcome the victorious team back home.

Ironically I watched the last World Cup final with the only Argentinian in Germany. The final between Germany and Argentina was being played in Brazil and we were at Leipzig airport preparing to fly home after the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring. I sat with Diego the Dorna photographer watching his side lose as the Germans celebrated all around. It was feeling I knew so well although as I told Diego at least Argentina had reached the final. The last time England did that was in 1966.

So here we go again.